Jon Stewart Would Beat Stephen Colbert in a Presidential Election

Daily Show host Jon Stewart would beat The Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert in a presidential election by a resounding 42 percent to 22 percent. If, you know, the two comedians were actually running for president, against each other.

Apparently, The Washington Post was bored last week, because it decided to run the numbers on a very, very hypothetical presidential election matchup: Comic figures Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Would it be possible to run a more meaningless poll? Probably not, no. But that doesn't mean you're not a little bit interested in the results, right?

Stewart beats Colbert 42-22, obviously, with most of his strength coming from Democrats (53-19 in favor of Stewart) and adults under 30 (63-24). In fact, the only demographic where Colbert has any support at all is "conservative Republicans who voted for McCain in 2008 and who say they'll vote for a Republican candidate in their district in 2010," among whom he leads Stewart 26 to 21. (Even people who say they support the Tea Party break slightly for Stewart at 32-29.)

Which all makes you wonder: Do the people who are supporting Colbert supporting the character, or the actor, or the general approach to comedy, or what? As well as all the other questions, like, why?